Your Detroit Memories! (Dearborn, Hart: living in, store, bill)

[Maxine3]

You must be one tough cookie to surive Minneapolis winters
One didn't have to be very tough to survive the 1950's Detroit. I was a 1954Mackenzie grad.
We did have our moments, though.
I remember going to a Denby/Mackenzie basketball game where our star "Moose" was stabbed, in the Denby parking lot, after the game.
They used penknives in those day so he wasn't seriously hurt.
It was the one and only away game I ever went to.
Mackenzie is history now, as is Redford, which I attended for one semester.
My old grade school, Parker, is closed as well.
R.I.P Detroit.

[Blue Grass Fever]

Originally Posted by and the

My mom also grew up in the area on Allonby and later moved to the Lonyo/McGraw area (St. Cunnegunda's). I still go to the Supreme Bakery on Proctor.

Was the Lonyo/Livernois/McGraw area a polish neighborhood at one time? I remember hearing the 'old-timers' referring to that area as the ''p-olack part of town''.


Another Detroit memory:going up the glass elevator on the outsid of the Renaissance Building. It scared me so bad that i dropped to the bottom of it in a near fetal position.

[Jeanie Hoholik]

Maxine,

I went to Parker for kindergarten. Wow! Miss Madsen was my teacher. I lived on Griggs right down the street from Mackenzie High. We moved to the east side when I was in 3rd grade. Anyway, it's a small world!

[and the]

Was the Lonyo/Livernois/McGraw area a polish neighborhood at one time? I remember hearing the 'old-timers' referring to that area as the ''p-olack part of town''.

Oh yeah, big time. There were bars within a block of just about every house in the area. Same thing with bakeries. Not too many Polish left around there now. Lots of Mexicans and Albanians, Serbs, Arabs, etc. I can't imagine how many kids were around there during Maxine's High School career. There were Catholic Schools in every neighborhood PLUS the public schools, and they were all full at the time. Most of the bakeries are Yugoslavian now.

That was a great neighborhood.

[Maxine3]

If Miss Madsen was Marie, she and I went to school together.
I heard that she became a teacher.
My daughter also went to Parker for 1st grade, in 1963, and had the same teacher, Mrs. Bay, that I had.

[trinkit]

Originally Posted by and the

Oh yeah, big time. There were bars within a block of just about every house in the area. Same thing with bakeries. Not too many Polish left around there now. Lots of Mexicans and Albanians, Serbs, Arabs, etc. I can't imagine how many kids were around there during Maxine's High School career. There were Catholic Schools in every neighborhood PLUS the public schools, and they were all full at the time. Most of the bakeries are Yugoslavian now.

That was a great neighborhood.

There was the BEST bakery on Buchanan just east of Livernois. And does anyone remember St. Hedwigs?

[and the]

My best friend's sister went to St. Hedwig. She graduated around 85 or 86. I don't know how long after that it stayed open. Don't remember the bakery on Buchanan. There were a million of them. Proctor Bakery, Tarnow Bakery, Supreme Bakery...His uncle had a Pizza place on Vernor...can't remember the name of it but I think it was right by Holy Redeemer.

[ayoungrich81]

Originally Posted by Blue Grass Fever

That was a strange one to go into after a night of partying, reeking of alcohol, only to sit side by side or near Detroit Police officers.The place is so tiny that it's nearly impossible to entirely avoid the officers. I tried to stay away from that one in the wee hours of the morning.

I agree with you, though, on it being better than both of the coney islands downtown.

Another memory: hanging/eating out at the White Castle knock-off over by Martin and Michigan Ave. (can't remember the name of it, though...)

I remember giving this lady a ride back to her place of employment and every time she would cross the Detroit border(which was around/into Dearborn), she would say a little prayer with a motion of a cross with her hand over her chest.

It was Top Hats

[and the]

Nope, it was, and is Telway. I'll post a pic tomorrow maybe...

Telway Hamburger System, Detroit | MyTravelGuide.com

[and the]

It's been Telway since the 40's. If it was a Top Hat, it was before then:

Stories and sliders

Eats: 3 stars
Experience: 5 stars

by Jane Slaughter
5/15/2002

There’s just something about all-night diners. Telway, on Michigan Avenue west of Livernois, is the kind of place where the waitresses had tattoos before everyone else. It feels like it would be easy to become a regular; with only seven stools, right on top of the workspace, you can hardly avoid getting involved in conversations. Nobody’s in a hurry for you to leave after your 45-cent hamburger.

Telway’s outstanding characteristic, in a corner of the parking lot, is a life-size model of two longhorns pulling a cart piled with burned lumber. It’s surrounded by a tall fence to discourage vandals; it was there when the owner, Earl, took over 50 years ago. (The tiny structure is 78 years old.) What they have to do with Telway’s mission is lost to history.

One night, a pale woman staggers in, leans on the counter, and asks for a grilled cheese sandwich (not on the menu). “I just got out of the hospital and my stomach’s still upset,” she explains, and exits with a soft drink, leaning on a young boy’s shoulder. “She didn’t get out of no hospital — more like a crack house,” snorts a waitress. “That’s either pills or heroin — it ain’t crack,” says a cook. The woman provides conversation for patrons and staff for the next little while.

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Another slow evening sees a prolonged argument between Archie, a retired Chrysler worker who is one of the regulars, and the young hamburger cook: Is there really such a thing as an engine called a “flathead six”? Archie promises to return on Friday with proof. Throughout, the cook continues his assembly-line production, making a dozen miniature hamburgers at a time: a squiggle of ketchup and mustard, a pickle and some fried onions, thick buns and a dab of beef.

The hamburger guy says they go through 300-400 pounds of ground beef a day. A different hamburger cook (also a young guy — this job demands speed and dexterity) claims they sell a thousand burgers on the 9 p.m.-6 a.m. shift on a Friday or Saturday night. Factoring in the slower shifts, that means the meat in the burgers is around a fifth or a sixth of a pound.

At four for $1.50, nobody’s complaining. In fact, they’re lining up; most of Telway’s business is through the order window, and it’s rare to see that window not framing a line of faces. It’s the burgers and the double-cream/double-sugar coffees that keep ’em coming. The reason Earl can make a profit on tabs of $1.59 and $1.43 is repeat business. Everybody knows the drill, putting in orders like “two double-doubles and two triple-triples.” Those would be 40 cents and 50 cents, respectively.

One of the pony-tailed waitresses, in addition to the name-and-date tattoos on her forearms, has a fresher one on the back of her neck. It looks like Chinese characters, and I ask her what it means. “I can’t tell you,” she says.

“Can’t or don’t want to?”

A minute later, she slips me a note: “It says *****.”

How am I supposed to assign stars to the Telway? What am I comparing it to — the Whitney? Starbucks? In the fast-food genre, it’s a hell of a lot friendlier than McDonald’s (“Can I help who’s next?” from a sullen teenager), and some of the food is better.

The fish and chicken sandwiches are crispier than McDonald’s and only 95 cents. The 55-cent fries aren’t quite as crisp as McDonald’s, but they’re pretty good, and Telway serves onion rings too. The “hillbilly chili” is the thin kind, more of a soup and medium-mild. (And it does taste like the kind I grew up on in West Virginia.) There’s a large array of doughnuts and cinnamon rolls, also big sellers. I didn’t have the nerve to try the egg or tuna salads.

My friend and I had a leisurely meal, all we could eat — three sandwiches, chili, onion rings, two sweet buns, coffee, two juices — for $7.79. Nobody was in a hurry to scoot us out the door.